GSE Plans Demutualization by 2013

The Ghana Stock Exchange, whose composite index has climbed 14 percent this year, plans to distribute stock to members before selling shares to the public by 2013, Managing Director Kofi Yamoah said.

“We would see the exchange listing its own shares on the market like the Johannesburg and London stock exchanges,” he said in a phone interview today from Accra, the capital, declining to provide a specific timeframe. “The long-term plan is to open ownership to the public.”

Demutualization will make the bourse a profit-seeking entity for its shareholders, Yamoah said. Shares will first be offered to brokerage firms, listed companies and associate members before they are opened to the public, he said.

The 34-member index’s gain this year makes it sub-Saharan Africa’s best-performing gauge together with Botswana and Zambia’s measures, which have also advanced 14 percent. The increases compare with a 16 percent drop in the MSCI Frontier Markets Index over the same period.

The bourse will introduce an exchange-traded fund, linked to the price of gold, by the end of the year, Yamoah said.

“We want to reposition the market in the eyes of policy makers, entrepreneurs and multinationals to bring new products and instruments to trade,” he said.